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Published: February 5th 2013
We set off from Wellington bright and early and jumped on the Interislander ferry. The crossing was very calm which came as a surprise given the stories we had heard from previous trips. The ferry pulls around the headland from Wellington and crosses the sea fairly quickly. The next two hours are spent navigating through the Marlborough Sounds before pulling into a pretty little town called Picton. We had some great views when crossing as the water was really still and the sun was shining. We even saw a couple of dolphins pass by.
Once we had reclaimed our rucksacks (yes - on a ferry in NZ you have to check-in your luggage) we found our Magic Bus waiting just outside the ferry office and set off for Nelson. The scenery had become endless fields of vines and we stopped for lunch in the Blenheim area, at a Winery (Bouldevines) and took part in a brief tasting. The most interesting was a Pinot Noir, which was the only red we sampled, but was served chilled, very refreshing on a hot day. I had to drag Hazel away before she blew our daily budget on a couple of bottles!
For
the rest of the journey, the land became more hilly and the vines were replaced with pine forest. This was the outskirts of Mount Richmond Park which we drove along and arrived into Nelson in time for dinner.
We haven't mentioned cooking meals so far in the blog, so I thought I would add a few snippets here to show how back to reality we now are: The hostel kitchens are variable in cleanliness and we always wash everything BEFORE and after use; we have invested in our own knives and forks, as it grosses me out that other people do not clean them too well; our first purchase in Auckland was our own tea-towel (with kiwis on it 😊 ), as even the clean ones look in a bit of a state and smell funny. Once we came to terms with all that, we have had fairly good experiences in the shared kitchens. Apart from one night in Rotorua (Crash Palace), where two of our sandwiches went missing over night. We were pretty gutted about it, but after speaking to other backpackers, we discovered that on the same night another couple had a whole pack of fish fingers
taken and someone else had her left over pizza stolen. So a definate "munchy-thief" on the loose that night (it was the night of the hostel's bar crawl!).
That gives me a nice segway to our new addition to our collection of packpacker kitchen essentials. "Dah Dah Dah"... a tin opener. We splashed out a whopping $2.75 for it. This was after we discovered that all five of the current hostel's can-openers didn't work and we had to dash down to the supermarket, as I had punctured a tin of tuna three times in attempting to open it.
More "rant of the day"s to come I'm sure, but on to Abel Tasman...
On our first day in Nelson, we decided to check out the Abel Tasman National Park. This park is apparently the "most visited" in NZ and it is easy to see why, as there are so many sandy beaches with no one else around for miles. When Hazel and I arrived at 8:30am it was overcast, but we were prepared for this kind of weather on the south island, so we put jumpers on, and after a coffee, headed on the walking trail, taking photos
of the views along the way. What this actually meant was, when the sun came out later we re-took all the photos again, but this time with the sun out and sweaters off! Once the sun came out, it was hard to stop Hazel heading off towards every sandy bay which we passed to top up her tan. I'm a slightly better colour now than when we started, but I still essentially go red and then back to white. Once the sun had come out, we stopped our walk at Apple Tree Bay and spent the day on an almost deserted beach chasing off bumble bees, which were attacted to our blue traveltowels. While we were in the sea, we noticed some clear blobs of jelly which are apparently jelly-fish, but don't have any stingers beneath them, just a black under-skirt. "You can pick these ones up with no harm at all, just make sure it's not a blue bottle, or you will know about it" was the advice given by our Kayaking guide the next day. Neadless to say, we didn't feel the need to pick any up to test her theory.
After our day at the beach,
we headed back to Nelson and took a walk down town to check the place out. On the way back, we passed a pub showing the final of the Rugby Sevens in Wellington, so we stopped for a quick drink to watch England beat Kenya in the final. It was nail-biting stuff and all the locals appeared to be rooting for Kenya. I guess it might be due to the recent defeat NZ had to England in autumn friendlies, or maybe that England beat the NZ sevens team in the opening game of the Wellington 7s! Either way, every kiwi we speak to is into their rugby and there is no love lost for the England team.
On Sunday we arranged a sea kayaking trip (with Kahu Kayaks) around the Marine Reserve in the National Park, in the hope of seeing some seals and blue pengiuns. The trip started from Marahau, where the nine of us in our group hopped onto a speed-boat which was to take us to the Reserve. However, due to the low tides at Marahau, you get on the boat while it is still on a trailer and a tractor tows you out onto the
beach and into the sea before you speed off. On the way to the beach we saw our only blue pengiun of the day in the middle of the water, but as we got closer he dived down and swam further away. The good thing about the Kayaking trip is that you are able to see the wildlife in it's natural habitat, but the unfortunate thing is that you are not ever guaranteed to see anything.
Kayaking was fun, as we had a fairly small group and shared tandem kayaks. The water was still and the sun was shining, so we were able to be very close to the shore and navigate between the rocks so as to get close to the fur seals. We saw a few of them including one oiling himself in the water and a baby clambering over the rocks. As the water is so clear we were also able to see a giant sting ray swimming along the bottom which was pretty cool. We took a mid-morning break on a deserted beach and our guide (Sam) make some coffees, including foamed milk, which was rather impressive when out on a remote bay. Then we
set out onto the sea again and made our way around a few more bays before heading up a river to a swing-bridge about 12 metres above the river... Time for the adrenaline fix of the day! Sam told us that at high-tide there is a spot on the bridge where it is deep enough to jump off. We tied up the Kayaks at the side of the river and scrambled up the side of the valley to the swing bridge. It seemed a little higher once we were up there and to get off you have to squeeze yourself between the top rope and the (safety!) fence and then teeter on the side of the bridge facing out. This required assistance from those of us still standing on the bridge to ensure the jumper didn't slip. Sam went first to prove that you wouldn't die if you hit the right patch of water and then Hazel stepped up to be the second jumper. We'd amassed quite a crowd by the end and soon I was the only one left on the bridge, after five of our group had already jumped. (Not sure why I'm always the last to go
at these things?!) The second hardest part was getting onto the outside of the bridge without anyone helping. The hardest is actually jumping off, this time without my skydive guy to pull my head back and push me! Just look forwards and remember that four girls have all just done this before you, so you don't really have choice, jump! It's a great rush, but hitting the water can really hurt if you land arse first. (Hazel will testify to that!) (Editors note: it's not as stupid as it sounds...I actually landed feet first but my arse seemed to take the brunt of the impact. My pride and my bruised tail-bone are still recovering 2 days later!)
After a spot of lunch on another deserted beach, we headed out onto the open sea where the waves and wind had picked up. Paddling against the water around the first couple of headlands was hard going, but then Sam called us all together and had us hold onto each other's Kayaks to form a raft. We then used a giant sheet as a sail, by hoisting it up on a couple of paddles at the back corners and holding the front
two corners down. We picked up quite a bit of speed and almost made it back onto the sand at Anchorage Bay. Brilliant, as it was just at the point where everyone was getting tired! After such a tiring day we treated ourselves to fish & chips at what is apparently the 'best in New zealand'. We weren't convinced, although the Kumara (NZ sweet potato) fries were good!
Over the last couple of days the weather has taken a turn for the worse and Monday was a complete wash out, so we spent most of the day washing clothes, watching a House box-set and booking the rest of our NZ trip. So much for the Sunshine capital of the country! Luckily it brightened up on Tuesday enough for us to follow the walking trail to the centre of New Zealand, which is up on the hills overlooking Nelson. From there you can see for miles around and all the way to Nelson harbour, which is where we walked to in the afternoon for a coffee on the quay. It is a little way out of town, but we are almost recovered from the exhaustion of Kayaking now.
Tomorrow,
on to Greymouth...although we've heard it's pretty grim...
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Chris
non-member comment
Haha, not more tea towel chat!